I agree 100% in theory, but in concrete it just doesn't work. How do we determine the person is an entrepreneur we want in? It's easy to say if we are going to give them an H1B or a startup visa (whatever that ends up looking like) we should just give them a green card, but it sounds to me like a major part of this issue is who is actually doing the deciding, not only what the decision itself is.
For instance, we trust the government with software patents right now and over and over again they approve what we consider to be horribly damaging patents. We should trust them to evaluate an entrepreneur as well?
There is a reason this decision is outsourced to the employers/investors: it's actually the more free solution. Otherwise it's up to the government to determine who's/what's worth paying for, and just hoping they are right. This way we've already established a market for the person before they enter the country. It's far from perfect, but if you just give people green cards how many people do you think will suddenly want to be entrepreneurs to get their green card?
The government doesn't seem capable of regulating anything right now, so I'm pretty content to outsource the decision to investors and employers. At least that way they have a chance to get a Fred Wilson, instead of a guarantee not to.
The existing system favors those who are good at hiking in the desert, as well as a few who are good at jumping through a long series of bureaucratic hoops. Even if this improvement is not perfect it should help, but I agree it should be constructed as intelligently as possible.
A good change should error on the side of being overly accepting.
For instance, we trust the government with software patents right now and over and over again they approve what we consider to be horribly damaging patents. We should trust them to evaluate an entrepreneur as well?
There is a reason this decision is outsourced to the employers/investors: it's actually the more free solution. Otherwise it's up to the government to determine who's/what's worth paying for, and just hoping they are right. This way we've already established a market for the person before they enter the country. It's far from perfect, but if you just give people green cards how many people do you think will suddenly want to be entrepreneurs to get their green card?
The government doesn't seem capable of regulating anything right now, so I'm pretty content to outsource the decision to investors and employers. At least that way they have a chance to get a Fred Wilson, instead of a guarantee not to.